The present invention relates to radio communications, and more particularly, to mobile communications networks including radio-nodes defining respective coverage areas.
A mobile communications network may include a plurality of spaced apart radio-nodes (also referred to as base stations) defining respective radio-node coverage areas (also referred to as cells). A mobile user terminal (e.g., a cellular radiotelephone) may thus communicate through a radio-node defining the radio-node coverage area in which the user terminal is located. By providing overlap between radio-node coverage areas of adjacent radio-nodes, a continuous network coverage area may be defined, and continuous communications for a moving user terminal may be provided using a hand-off of the user terminal from one radio-node to the next as the user terminal moves from one radio-node coverage area to the next.
Primary radio-nodes may provide coverage across an entirety of the network coverage area, but primary radio-nodes may not provide sufficient capacity to satisfy demand for communications in high density/traffic areas and/or during high density/traffic times. For example, a relatively high demand for communications may occur along a heavily traveled road during a high traffic period (e.g., during rush hour). In order to satisfy this relatively high demand, secondary radio-nodes may be provided in/along these high density/traffic areas.